


You Should Be Resting

by Exhausted_Sloth



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Hiding Medical Issues, Hurt Tony Stark, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Not Beta Read, Post-Avengers (2012), Sort Of, Whump, Worried Bruce Banner, Worried Steve Rogers, broken ribs, but i tried, probably medically inaccurate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:08:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24792853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Exhausted_Sloth/pseuds/Exhausted_Sloth
Summary: When the Avengers get back to the tower after a mission, they decide to have a movie night so they can unwind. Unknown to the rest of the team, Tony broke some ribs during the mission, and he decides not to tell them.
Relationships: Bruce Banner & Clint Barton & Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov & Tony Stark & Thor, Bruce Banner & Tony Stark, Steve Rogers & Tony Stark, Tony Stark & Avengers Team
Comments: 2
Kudos: 95





	You Should Be Resting

**Author's Note:**

> The characters don't belong to me!

“Are you going to join us, Stark?” Steve called from the couch. The rest of the Avengers were sitting around the room, gathered around a large TV. “If you don’t hurry, we might have to start the movie without you.”

“Calm down, Capsicle, I’ll be there in a minute. I’m getting the popcorn.” Tony stiffly gathered up the various popcorn buckets he had prepared, then made his way over to the others. His ribs twinged as he moved, but he hid his wince and handed the popcorn out. Glancing around the room, he let out an internal sigh. The only open seat was on the couch between Steve and Bruce. He had wanted one of the armchairs, but the other three Avengers had taken them, leaving him stuck between the two people who were most likely to notice him sitting weirdly due to his broken ribs.

“I know the mission was hard, Stark, but does it really take that long to shower and make popcorn? The rest of us have been here for almost fifteen minutes,” Clint said.

Tony didn’t dignify the archer’s comment with a verbal response, instead simply raising an eyebrow at him. Moving as gingerly as he could without it being obvious, he lowered himself down onto the couch between Steve and Bruce, though he didn’t lean back against it just yet. _It takes that long when you’ve got broken ribs,_ Tony thought, _Not that he knows that I broke them._

“Let’s just watch the movie,” Bruce suggested diplomatically. Natasha, who had the remote, pointed it at the TV and pressed play.

As the movie started, Tony carefully started to relax back into the couch. He quickly straightened, however, when his ribs protested the change in posture. Making a face, he resigned himself to spending the entire movie sitting stiffly upright, and hoping that nobody would notice.

As the movie dragged on, Tony had more and more trouble concealing his pain. Even an hour into the movie, he was still sitting straight up, and he was so exhausted he didn’t know how much longer he would be able to hide the fact that he had broken ribs.

Bruce leaned forward to grab a half full bucket of popcorn from the coffee table. As he did so, his elbow bumped Tony’s damaged ribcage.

Tony let out a hiss, his hand flying to cover the spot Bruce’s elbow had struck. Bruce gave him an apologetic look, which quickly turned suspicious as he looked more carefully at the inventor.

“Are you alright, Tony?” he asked, looking at him critically.

“I’m fine, Bruce,” Tony said shortly, lowering his hand from his ribcage, though it was still throbbing. Unfortunately for him, the rest of the Avengers had turned to look at him when he had hissed, ignoring the movie that was still playing.

“Why don’t you try relaxing a little, Stark?” Steve suggested, the suspicion in his tone obvious. “You’ve been stiff as a board the entire movie.”

Now facing so much suspicion from the rest of the team, Tony saw no other choice. He leaned back against the sofa, maintaining eye contact with Steve the entire time. This turned out to be a mistake, as Tony couldn’t hide the pained look on his face as his ribs told him in no uncertain terms that this was a terrible idea.

Steve raised an eyebrow, giving him an unimpressed look.

“Are you sure you’re fine, Stark?” he questioned. “It’s pretty obvious something’s wrong.”

Tony began to respond, but stopped and snapped his head back to look at Bruce when he felt fingers on the hem of his shirt. He tried to pull away from the scientist, but Steve put a warning hand on his shoulder, holding him in place. Bruce lifted the hem of his shirt, and his sharp intake of breath told Tony he saw the vivid bruises across his ribcage.

“What happened?” Bruce demanded quietly.

“I got caught out of the suit while I was collecting data,” Tony admitted. “An explosion caught me off guard, and a piece of the wall hit my side.”

Bruce probed his side gently, ignoring his hiss of pain. “I think three of your ribs are broken, Tony. When were you planning on informing the rest of us of this?”

Tony didn’t respond, so Bruce continued. “You shouldn’t be sitting upright for this long watching a movie. Broken ribs can have serious complications, and you should be resting. You can’t just ignore them because they’re inconvenient.” Dropping the edge of Tony’s shirt, Bruce stood. “Come on, Tony. I need to get a better look at your ribs, so we’re going to the medbay.”

Tony glared at him. Thor got up and walked over to stand over the inventor, giving him a stern look.

“If you don’t cooperate, I’ll carry you there myself,” the god of thunder threatened. Tony, not liking the sound of that, stood stiffly and followed Bruce. The rest of the Avengers followed. None of them wanted to wait there for the news, even though they all knew he would be fine.


End file.
